Inside Peking University - Public Lecture on 'Shengren'

WESTERN 'China Studies', and by this I mean the army of scholars dedicated to the Westernization of Chinese history and thought, steals its victim’s ideas, buries its socio-cultural originality under sophisticated layers of biblical and philosophical European translations and interpretations. China is not alone. Foreign ideas and thoughts everywhere are quickly translatedor re-named in order to claim ‘Deutungshoheit’ – a German words meaning "having the sovereignty over the definition of thought."

In contemporary ‘China studies’ 99% of its scholars are what I call 'language imperialists'. It is plainly their best career option, and there is no blaming them for that. To be true, most of the sinologists describe China in Western terms, using European categories and taxonomies. Good examples are “democracy,” “human rights,” “freedom,” religion,” “philosophy,” and infinite more.

As a result of language imperialism the China that you were told is essential Chinese-free. This is good for the West, so, naturally, Western scholars are rewarded with Western fellowships, academic chairs, publishing contracts, prizes, awards, and numerous other academic distinctions and accolades. In other words: they are celebrated in their cultural circle like conquerors.

"The East-Asian shengren have been misjudged by Western scholars for over 350 years and conveniently translated as “philosophers” or “saints”, which is wrong. The shengren are above philosophy and beyond religion. It is time to revive an old Asian tradition." (Shengren, 2011)

Foreign history is thus slowly digested into the ‘Story of the Victorious’. Foreign taxonomies are discontinued, foreign words are shunned, and foreign categories are erased and purposely omitted. It doesn't have to be this way forever. Seeing cultural originality as a form of copyright, and looking at vocabularies as a (natural) resource of this culture, China could easily promote its own names, titles, and brands.

Image credits: The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University - The Future of Global Language and The Rise of Chinese Terminologies, Oct 2013

Germany's Deutungshoheit and Interpretational Sovereignty in the Euro Zone and European Economics

by The Yen Guy - A Blog About Sovreignty and Seigniorage

"The German word Deutungshoheit is defined as interpretational sovereignty and connotes supremacy in all things, the result being German economic, banking, credit, and military supremacy, over all of the Eurozone.

German linguist Thorsten Pattberg relates Deutungshoheit is a German word meaning “having the sovereignty over the definition of thought,” sometimes also called “the prerogative of final explanation.” 

Economic supremacy. Germany is an export powerhouse, something attained by striving to make the best of products, by keeping wage increases low, and by making products people want, which has generated a current account surplus for years."

Read at Economic Review Journal: Through Deutungshoheit, Germany Will Rise To Rule First The Eurozone, And Then The World

Pattberg: Add Daxue, Junzi, and Shengren to the Global Language

Dr. Pattberg explains why certain Chinese words are mandatory for global citizenship:

"China cannot make the West learn the Chinese language. But what it can do is to promote certain key terminologies back into world history. China, to this day, keeps the spirit of the Daxue. It is a living shengren culture." - T. Pattberg

In a recent feature article at Big Think, the global think tank, Dr. Pattberg argues that the future Global Language will have to include many more Chinese key terminologies. The reason why those terminologies are missing now lies in erroneous European translations of Chinese names in the past. Foreign concepts and categories were simply replaced with convenient European words in order to keep what the Germans call 'Deutungshoheit' - the sovereignty over the definition of thought. This kind of 'Language Imperialism' in the 21st Century, says Pattberg, is no longer adequate or called-for. On the contrary, he believes that the world is now ready for Chinese words and what better place to find some than Inside Peking University - China's mother lode of higher education! [Read at BIG THINK]

Thorsten Pattberg is a German writer, scholar, and cultural critic. He received his PhD from Peking University, spent time at Tokyo University and Harvard University, is a former research fellow at The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University and is the author of ‘Shengren’ and ‘The East-West Dichotomy’. 

If you example Pattberg’s works, Pattberg will notice. (Slavoj Zizek, 16 May 2013)

No other than Slavoj Zizek, the "Elvis of Philosophy," whom I quoted in language imperialism, must have found my work. Respective articles on "Chinese philosophy" (a European misleading translation/invention) and the sovereignty over the definition of thought had been published in Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, the US, and Germany; circulated over 2 million times in print, but also online in the radical leftist Asia Times. Some articles: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

0:39:27

"For example, when we talk about “Chinese philosophy” it is clear that we are doing an eurocentricist operation, because “philosophy” as we know it emerged in Europe; and if we apply the same notion to Chinese thought, the Chinese thought is automatically in a disadvantage." --Slavoj Zizek [GO TO EXACT POSITION] [WATCH FULL CLIP]

DEUTUNGSHOHEIT

Deutungshoheit is a German word meaning "having the sovereignty over the definition of thought," sometimes also called "the prerogative of final explanation." The German philosophers Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel, for example, could easily promote 'The End of All Things' or 'The End of History' simply because they had written the history of all the world's people in German language, thus felt they owned world history. Seeing it this way, European dominance over the history of thought is a language trick. See two articles in Asia Times: Lost in translation I and Lost in translation II. [BACK TO MAIN]

Pattberg Interview: A China Without Chinese?

NEW YORK/TOKYO – Eric Draitser sits down with Dr. Thorsten Pattberg to discuss academia, language and imperialism. Dr. Pattberg examines the ways in which academic imperialism is used to shape dominant discourse. CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE.

New York/Tokyo - Thorsten Pattberg and Eric Draitser discuss Academic Imperialism

CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO:

Pattberg: "We have already annihilated China's spiritual shengren and the other archetypes. They are gone."